


Stories for Children

by BloodyAbattoir



Series: Your Reality Is A Nightmare [21]
Category: The Inheritance Cycle - Christopher Paolini
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Gen, Surprise Ending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-08-24
Packaged: 2020-04-06 11:41:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 1,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19061941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BloodyAbattoir/pseuds/BloodyAbattoir
Summary: As a child, you found it exceedingly difficult to make friends with human children. As such, you ripped characters out of books, and amassed a small army of imaginary friends. Unfortunately for you, putting so much energy into these creations have unintended long term consequences.





	1. Chapter 1

The best way to state something radical, to convey something, to get an idea out, or even to simply make a point, is to disguise it as a book or movie intended for children and teenagers. By doing so, your sanity will never be questioned, and you will never be seen as a threat.

 

Want to point out the existence of fairies? Make a kids movie. Show that animals are more than just simple, ignorant beasts? Write a novel for a child. After all, the youths of today are the movers and shakers of the world of tomorrow.

 

If you disguise it as something geared towards children, then you will never be questioned. There will be no men in white coats chasing you, no worried and concerned people, no questions as to why an adult would hold a belief in dragons or elves or mermaids. Stories of these things are, after all, merely fodder for young imaginations, and are quickly abandoned by the time the child is in primary school or thereabouts.

 

Today, you understand that only too well, having experienced it first-hand. But when you were young, you didn't know this. When you were a child, you didn't realize the truth that was sealed between the fantasy novels of your formative years.

 

Now, however, you are quite aware of it, and regard any children's book you encounter with suspicion, and dare I say it, more often than not, a tinge of fear.

 

This all started nearly two decades ago, when you were barely five years of age.


	2. Chapter 2

You are barely 5 years old. You have yet to be exposed to the world, and have no friends, but you do not yet know what you are missing out on.

 

At this age, you still believe in fairies and dragons, and your belief in them is left unchallenged, as you are still a child. If anything, during the rare few times you see your mother, she tells you stories about fantasy and myth. Even then, you had wished that she didn't have to work as much, and that you could actually spend more time with her.

 

One day, when she comes home from work, she has a small gift for you. It is a book on dragons, part of a series called, 'Dragonology.'.

 

This book would only serve to add fuel to the fire of your interest in fantastical creatures, and trigger a life-long obsession.


	3. Chapter 3

Several months later you turned 6. You still had no social exposure, and still had no friends. You also didn't mind it in the slightest at this point, as currently, your imaginary friends and your storybooks were more than enough to keep you occupied. You finally decided to ask your mother a question that had been bothering you for many months. Were dragons and fairies real? Were there any still alive?

 

She replied to you, telling you that they were real, but they were very, very rare, and that they were afraid of the humans that might hurt them. Maybe one day, if you were very, very lucky, you'd meet a dragon. 

 

Just then, your uncle walked into the room, a furious expression on his face. He said you were too old for those stories, and that you needed to grow up.


	4. Chapter 4

Having been so immersed in fantasy and myth, and so desperate to see something vaguely related to anything in the books, you began looking carefully at your surroundings. You began to notice every single thing about your surroundings, and question the details. Saw a strange pattern of growth on a tree? Might be fairies. Heard of farmers in the next county over complain of missing cattle on the news? Could be a dragon.

 

Sooner or later, your careful observation and your childlike questioning of everything paid off. That summer, in your back yard, you found a strange structure, maybe the size of a coconut, if that. It was entirely constructed of plant matter, and it looked like it had small doors and windows cut into it.

 

You believed that you had found a fairy house.

 

Excitedly, you ran into the house, wanting to tell someone of the amazing discovery that you had just made. Your mother was nowhere to be found. Instead, your uncle was there. He was not enthused about your finding in the least. Instead, you were berated for being childish, and told to grow up. You were further berated for being in the back yard on a sunny day in a safe neighborhood, and you were promptly forbidden from going outside again.

 

The next day, you found the door to the back yard securely locked, and you couldn't find the key. You were now effectively trapped in your house, not even permitted into your own yard.

 

In response, you began to bury yourself in your books, until you knew the legends as well as your own life story, if not better.


	5. Chapter 5

It is now late August, and you have started first grade. School was nothing like you thought it would be, and nothing like any of the few television shows that you had seen portrayed it as.

 

For one, there were not very many students, and the teachers were strict. Religion was drilled into nearly every facet of the curriculum, and the classrooms were tiny and ancient. Despite the heat of summer, the A/C barely worked, a sure sign that it would do little to keep you warm come winter.

 

For two, despite all the religion that was preached practically every minute of every day, it seemed as if it fell upon the ears of the deaf. The children were cruel, and taunted you relentlessly. You had no friends, and seemed unable to make any here. They all seemed to hate you, and refused to have anything to do with you, despite being forced to under certain circumstances by the teachers.

 

When your Spanish teacher had you split into partners and quiz each other on the words you had learned last class, none chose to pair off with you. When the teacher finally assigned a girl to be your partner, she spent the better part of it whispering with the pair next to you, and glaring angrily at you the rest of the time. During P.E., when your coach split you into two teams, you were often left out, and the ball was never tossed to you, despite her insistence on everyone participating. On and on it went.

 

Worst of all, however, was when they laughed at you, and pointed at you, calling you a witch and acting as if they were afraid of you putting a curse on them. They had singled you out for your hair, which had turned practically bright red in the summer sun. You swore that you would change that dreaded color as soon as you were able to. The teachers knew of all of this, and they often heard it, saw it happen right in front of them. Yet they said nothing, and even the principal ignored it, laughing at it and claiming that it was nothing, that children would be children.

 

You would later find out that your mother never wanted you to go to that school in the first place.


	6. Chapter 6

By the time that December has come around, you come home crying practically every day from the children at school. More often than not, your mother is working late and isn't there to hear your complaints. After a while, your uncle tells you that you have to grow up and stop crying over everything.

 

You begin to realize that at least for the time being, books are your only friends.

 

As such, you make a visit to the tiny library near your house at least twice a week, sometimes more. They quickly come to know you by your name and face, and greet you every time that you enter. Here, in the library, you begin to feel safe, and feel like you belong.

 

Before long, you are forced to move on from this library, as you have read practically everything that it has to offer, courtesy of your frequent visits.

 

This makes you almost as sad as the taunts from the children at your unhappy little school.


	7. Chapter 7

That Christmas, your gifts were mainly books. The majority of them were books on mythology, with a heavy focus on dragons. There were two more books in the Dragonology series, as well as several books on the mythology of the creatures around the world.

 

Over the rest of the Christmas weeks, you read through the books. By New Years Day, you had thoroughly absorbed the information held between the covers of each and every one of these books, and had enjoyed it immensely.

 

One thing you couldn't help but notice, however, was the way the East and West differed so greatly in their treatment of the fantastical beasts. The East saw the Dragons as beneficial beings, and greatly revered them. The Western World, however, saw dragons as evil beasts, that ought to be slaughtered on sight. You found this sad, and very unfair.

 

However, it spurned you to want to study dragons more than ever, and finally equalize this situation. When you were old enough, you decided, your life mission would be to educate people on the nature of these fantastic beasts, and more importantly, protect them from harm.


End file.
